THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



497 



of papers, the novelties were not at all numerous at 

 the Canterbury meeting ; and some of these being but 



small amount of novelty — and therefore not worthy of 

 detailed notice, our duty of explanation has been com- 



novelties, and little more— that is, characterized by a I paratively light. 



R. S. B. 



THE NEW LANDLORD AND TENANT BILL FOR IRELAND. 



Some years since, ere the Tenant- Right claim came 

 to be much admitted amongst us, one very grave ob- 

 jection was sure to be urged against the recognition of 

 the principle. It had " got a bad name," and landlords, 

 without staying to enquire into its real action, carefully 

 kept aloof of the movement. Tenant-right in their 

 eyes was more Irish than English, and they straightway 

 came to picture in association with its development 

 agrarian outrage of the worst character. The actual 

 owner of the soil would have no real power over it; 

 his agents would be bullied, or fer worse treated; while 

 the tenant would argue on possession being not merely 

 nine-tenths of the law, but a great deal more. As for 

 improvement being fostered by any such a system, 

 bitter experience went to assure us that the rule was 

 the very reverse. There was no getting quit of a bad 

 man; while the agitation for his assumed rights of 

 course only tended to make him worse. Let us give 

 the tenantry compensation for unexhausted improve- 

 ments, as they do down in Lincolnshire. Let us by all 

 means endeavour to bring about a due adjustment 

 of the several claims of owner and occupier ; but 

 pray do not employ that terrible phrase in 

 doing so. As with the sensitive lady in Peter 

 Simple, when her good husband was ^waging war 

 against Lindley Murray, the very mention of the phrase 

 would briug on " sich a head-ache." So that poor 

 Mr. Pusey had to tack about for all sorts of side-winds 

 to run the good ship in ; while The Mark Laiie Express 

 had to be perpetually explaining that the English 

 Tenant-Right was not the Irisli Tenant- Right, and that 

 there was really no cause for alarm. 



However, " a rose by any other name would smell 

 as sweet," and the English claim has surely if slowly 

 made its way. It may not have much position in our 

 law books, but the justice of the principle has told 

 upon most men, and more equitable agreements will 

 answer for uncertain " custom.'' It is a wholesome 

 sign though, still, to see the one class meet the other 

 with such a cry, when they are talking'over their duties 

 one to the other; and it was thus that Mr. Duckham 

 spoke out at tho Hereford dinner only last week. Of 

 course, according to the present etiquette of the thing, 

 the tenant-farmers come in rather at the fag-end of the 

 feast ; but this at least gives them the opportunity of 

 offering some comment on what the high table may 

 have advanced. Mr. Duckham is addressing himself 

 not merely to two landlords of the county, but to at 

 least one of his representatives in Parliament: ''He 

 expressed the gratification he felt upon hearing the 

 liberal manner in which Mr. Clive has come forward 

 to promote the formation of a company for the purpose 

 of providing steam ploughs for hire, and thought it 



would be productive of great benefit to the tenant- 

 farmer. At the same time he pointed to the essential 

 requirements of the fields being made more open, tho 

 crooked hedgerows straightened, and superfluous tim- 

 ber felled, before they could bo enabled to derive tho 

 full benefit from its use. Mr. Mildmay had stated that 

 the Tithe Commutation Act had been a great moral 

 agent for agricultural improvement ; he begged to toll 

 them that giving the tenantry a i'uU freedom of action, 

 not shackling them in their endeavours by restrictive 

 agreements, and giving them an equitable Tenant- 

 Right, would do more for agricultural progression than 

 anything that had liilherto taken place." 



This speaks well for the way in which the principle 

 is " maintained" here in England. But we look with 

 more anxiety to Ireland, " an improving country," 

 where such a sitfast as an impoverished, incapable 

 tenant would seem to be one of the greatest impedi- 

 ments to advancement that it would be possible to 

 devise. Fortunately for herself, Ireland, again, is 

 taking to another reading of the Right. The past 

 Session was not so utterly idle even as regarded Agri- 

 culture, the last interest in the world tlio Legisla- 

 ture is likely to care about. Another Landlord and 

 Tenant Bill— one almost shudders to write it— but 

 another measure on this much vexed subject was fairly 

 passed through all the necessary stages, for the benefit 

 of Ireland. And rarely has there been one which has 

 promised to do so much good. The direct aim of the 

 Act is improvement. Whether on the part of the land- 

 lord or his tenant, all kinds of powers and facilities 

 are offered ; but, above all, the principle of compensa- 

 tion for unexhausted expenditure, where advantageously 

 applied, is directly recognized. It is true that the im- 

 provements specified are more of a permanent than a 

 temporary character; but the other will follow, as the 

 system of modern agriculture, \vith all its disbursement 

 of capital in manures, marliug, chalking, and so on, 

 comes into adoption. However, the real meaning of 

 this war-cry is beginning at, last to be properly under- 

 stood. The wedge is rightly placed at last, while our 

 one remaining care is, how the Irish themselves will 

 take it ? Will they be s itisfied to suffer so exciting an 

 agitation to sink into so reasonable and, as we trust, 

 so easy an adjustment? The country, to be sure, 

 would seem to be raoio and more prepared for such a 

 step, and, to its credit be it written, would appear really 

 to welcome the now Bill. The Northern Whig, an 

 Ulster journal of roputc, thus writes of it : " The chief 

 value of the present measure is that the principle that 

 the tenant is entitled to compensation for the improve- 

 ments he effects is at last recognised by the law. 

 Under its provisions improvements can be made either 



